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multiple GPU folding; need help to optimize setup on P8Z77

ChristianVirtual

ChristianVirtual

[H]ard DCOTM x3
Joined
Feb 23, 2013
Messages
2,561
I would need to help of the most powerful folding team and the knowledge you guys cumulated:

until last week I was running on an Asus P8Z77 one GTX 780 in the slot close to the CPU and one GTX 660 Ti on the most distant slot; keeping the middle slot free some another GPU. The 780 has the monitor connected and is the primary screen. OS is Ubuntu 13.04; 319.xx driver with daily reboot.

Now I got a second GTX 780 and added it to the board; setup went smooth; Seasonic PSU is not breaking and folding on all three GPU cards is running; around 360kPPD with some help of CPU:4 and CPU:3 (sorry, a low number for here, I know :eek: )

When looking on the PPD, temps and GPU-memory usage I realised that the primary 780 card get some hit in PPD and also run on higher temps compared to the second 780; difference can be up to 10kPPD (I want those !!).

In oder to harvest those additional points and reduce wasted heat (and potentially energy) I wonder what do to to achieve two alternatives setups

1) use the iGPU as primary screen (connected via HDMI); but still folding on all NV cards
2) use the outside 660 TI as primary card

For option 1) I tried in the past but couldn't get the NV driver running and FAH folding; I Needed at least to have one monitor connected to any NV card.

For option 2) How could I convince the BIOS to use the outside slot as primary GPU ? Didn't find any hint in the manual or Google.

Based on the huge form factor of the 780 I can't physically swap the graphic cards; some pins on the MB would be in the way.

Thanks in advance to get me more points :D
Christian
 
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I don't think your slot 1 card's PPD woes are due to it driving the display. I recently added a second 780 to my rig running on a Sabertooth Z77; this rig has had the iGPU drive the display for a long time. After the addition, the card in slot 1 is consistently slower than the one in slot 2 when both are running at the same clocks. Early yesterday I happened to get an 8018 on card 2 and the PPD on card 1 went up to what card 2 does on core 17 projects. I think it's due to the limited number of PCIe lanes present in Z77 being saturated by the sheer quantity of data being transferred, with the more efficient core 17 being responsible for such high bandwidth. Why slot 1 gets bottlenecked instead of slot 2, I don't know. This may only be an issue with high-end cards, as I asked about this issue elsewhere and got a response from someone with dual 480s saying they've seen that behavior for a while.

I'm not sure what to do about option 1, as I run Windows 7 and don't know how well Linux handles different hardware drivers. As to 2, why can't you just plug the video cable into the 660? Shouldn't it output video over whatever card it detects is connected?
 
Zagen30 said:
As to 2, why can't you just plug the video cable into the 660? Shouldn't it output video over whatever card it detects is connected?
Click to expand...

What about trying a dummy plug? Cheap and easy to try.
 
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